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King Charles III inaugurates memorial honoring LGBT+ soldiers
King Charles III, Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces, inaugurated on Monday in central England a memorial dedicated to LGBT+ service members who were long victims of discrimination — the first monument of its kind in the United Kingdom.
Wearing a grey suit, the 76-year-old monarch laid a wreath of flowers at the base of the bronze monument, surrounded by active service members and veterans, during a ceremony held in Staffordshire.
Homosexual relationships were decriminalized in England and Wales in 1967, but the ban on gay, bisexual, or transgender people serving in the army remained in force until 2000. Many soldiers were dismissed from service, lost their pensions and medals, were imprisoned, or even subjected to forced medical treatments in military hospitals.
“An Opened Letter”
In 2021, the Ministry of Defence announced that those affected by past discrimination could reclaim their forfeited medals. The bronze monument, unveiled Monday at the National Memorial Arboretum, is titled “An Opened Letter”. It takes the form of a crumpled sheet of paper engraved with excerpts from personal letters—many of which were once used as evidence to prosecute people suspected of homosexuality.
The creation of such a monument was among the 49 recommendations made by the Etherton Review, a government-commissioned report examining the treatment of LGBT+ veterans who served during the military’s ban on homosexual personnel.
Published in 2023, the report also recommended financial compensation for those discriminated against, with payments of up to £70,000 (€80,000) now available.
In December 2023, then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak formally apologized for the historical exclusion of LGBT+ personnel from the armed forces, calling it a “dreadful failure of the British state.”